The pair, the titular Tarma and Kethry, meet at a crucial point in both of their lives and end up joining forces to take on a foe that would have been too much for either alone. The bond formed during this encounter forges a life-long friendship, and thanks to a bit of magic and the blessing of a goddess, a much deeper connection than simply two friends off adventuring together.
When Lackey first wrote about the pair, it was in several short stories, but she eventually wrote two novels. The first two books in this trilogy are those two novels. After The Oathbound and Oathbreakers were published, Lackey then collected all of her other Tarma and Kethry stories into a third, anthology, book, Oathblood. The Vows and Honor Trilogy binds all three together into one 700+ page tome.
The Oathbound
This first novel takes place just after Tarma and her new sorceress friend, Kethry, have taken out the gang that destroyed Tarma's clan. Tarma is a member of a nomadic race that is not only known for being excellent sword fighters, but also the premier horse breeders in all of the land. After becoming the sole survivor of a vicious attack, Tarma swore an oath to her people's goddess to get vengeance. In the time between that oath swearing and her eventual revenge, she trained to be one of the best sword fighters in the world, and when she finally caught up to the bandits, she found an unlikely ally in a young mage fresh out of her magic school and just starting on her wandering journey. Kethry quickly proves herself an ally to Tarma and the two become like sisters, so much so, that Tarma hopes that her clan will someday be able to live on, through Kethry, provided the rest of the clans accept the sorceress as a new member of the now all-but-dead clan that Tarma belonged to.
Tarma and Kethry soon decide that, while helping to reestablish Tarma's clan is a major goal for them, they also decide that they eventually want to start a school based on the pair's unique skills. Their school, or so they hope, will help train both magic users and warriors in such a way to make any of their students the envy of the world. The only real problem is that they don't have the money to start a school. Well, no money, land, or even a reputation to draw in students.
So, Tarma and Kethry set out, traveling the world as wandering mercenaries, and boy do they get a reputation. Unfortunately, that reputation isn't always what they hope it is. It seems Kethry comes with a bit of extra baggage. She is bound to a sword named Need. Need is an interesting weapon because it will grant a magic user expert knowledge in how to fight with it, but in the hands of a warrior, it provides protection against magical attacks. While this seems like an overpowered artifact, it does come with a major catch; if it feels that there is a woman in danger near it, it pulls on Kethry to seek that trouble and save the damsel in distress. Why is this bad? Well, they typically don't get paid for these extra missions. Add to that a bard that likes to follow them around and make up songs that aren't quite right and speaks about the fact that Tarma and Kethry run around saving people for no reward and... well, that's not exactly the best reputation for mercenaries trying to make a lot of money.
Most of The Oathbound follows the pair on many of their one-off jobs, as well as a few more significant adventures that help to clean up some of their troubled past, but the main event of this book occurs when two of their former enemies end up joining forces in order to get revenge on the pair. As it turns out, this is just the foe they need to really get a boost in their reputation. If only they had a good bit of money and some land, then they can finally start their school.
Oathbreakers
That money and land, not to mention the favor of a noble, is what Oathbreakers is about. After developing quite a renowned reputation, Tarma and Kethry join one of the premier mercenary troops, Idra's Sunhawks. The pair quickly rise in the ranks and Tarma becomes the leader of Idra's scouts, while Kethry becomes the troop's lead mage. After yet another successful campaign, Idra announces to her inner circle that she has to leave the group for a while as she has to return home and help settle a family matter. As it turns out, that family matter is to help decide who is next in line for the throne of Rethwellan, and since Idra's two brothers are the potential kings, she has to help the nobles decide who should wear the crown.
When time passes and no one hears from Idra, Tarma and Kethry are sent to the Rethwellan capital in disguise in the hopes of learning just what happened to their commander. What they discover is a kingdom that is starting to have some problems. One of the brothers is on the throne and the other is, apparently, in exile. Meanwhile, no one has seen or heard from Idra in months. Tarma and Kethry will have to use all the tricks they've developed over the years together to not only determine exactly what happened to Idra, but also track down the missing prince and, possibly, start a rebellion to put him on the throne.
Oathblood
As I said above, this third book is actually a collection of all of the Tarma and Kethry short stories. This is a nice collection featuring a lot of different adventures for the pair, and they range from encounters they have just after first meeting up, to a more involved tale that happens after their school is well established and they have to face a different kind of threat. I will say though, that there were at least two stories from this collection that were put into The Oathbound as part of the pair's early adventures. While reading Oathbound, I found the part of the book where they were having random missions to be a bit odd, and they felt like short stories stuck together, and when I saw these chapters repeated, I had my suspicions confirmed.
This leads to my only real complaint about Tarma and Kethry: Vows and Honor Trilogy. While I understand that this book is just an omnibus of the three Tarma and Kethry books, given the nature of Oathblood, I would have preferred to see a bit of work done to make the story a single, albeit massive, volume. I think the book as a whole would have felt better if the short stories were woven into the major story and blended together so that the one-off adventures the pair had would just feel like they were a part of the whole experience. I understand that this wouldn't make the Vows and Honor Trilogy just a reprint of the three books, but I think it would have made for a much stronger storytelling experience.
That being said, I really enjoyed this book as a whole. Both of these characters are fantastic and their skills balance each other perfectly. If I had the three books individually and read them all separately, I wouldn't even bat an eye at the issues I've raised here, but reading them all back-to-back like this book presents causes these issues to become very apparent.
